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Better than average read

Coalescent starts slowly as you meet George one of the two central characters who is portrayed as a bit of a dull type and probably not someone you would want to go out for a beer with. But you get drawn into his search for his missing sister who has mysteriously been placed in a quasi Culty/Religious institution since birth. Against the promise of excitement from the Kuiper Belt anomoly which his childhood pal is obssessing about George sets off to search for his sister and confront the mysterious cult/religion she belongs to. Georges dull character is cleverly contrasted and set into relief by Regina who we meet just prior to the fall of the Roman Empire. As you learn of her charismatic struggle to ensure her survival and that of her descendants up to the present day, it is the tension of how her story provides clues to Georges search for answers about his missing sister and the mysterious Cult that maintains your interest to the closing pages. Although the story is complete to this point and does not leave you hanging mid plot waiting for Destiny's Children Book Two for the denouement. Unanswered questions requiring resolution await the sequel which will hopefully explain the Kuiper Anomaly and Dark Matter tantalisingly dangled before us.

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Anonymous

Posted November 2, 2003

exciting science fiction

As the Kuiper Belt anomaly grips the planet, George Poole leaves London for Manchester to sell the house of his recently deceased father and split the profit with his Florida based decade older sister. Upon entering his dad¿s house (his mom died ten years ago), the memories of his youth flash by the now forty-five year old George until his world crumbles. George finds a photograph of two three year old children that look like fraternal twins standing in front of his family home. The male is George, but who is this female version of him? <P>In post Roman Britannia, Regina misses her carefree youth that ended about the time the strange lights arose in the heavens. She travels to Rome where she establishes the Order that lives and prospers under the streets of the city even to George¿s time Almost two millennium later George learns that he not only has a living twin, but she was given to the Order over two score ago. He treks to Rome to find a perfect hive of evolved humans that plan to expand their web beyond the Roman underground. <P>COALESCENT, the first book in Stephen Baxter¿s Destiny¿s Children trilogy, is an exciting science fiction tale that uses social order to propel human evolution. The story line alternates between George in the present and Regina in the past. The clever modern day tale provokes thought on evolution and social conditioning. However, Regina¿s world fails to materialize as it feels more like an account than a visit. Still readers will appreciate this deep tale and look forward to further debate over the pros and cons of human COALESCENT. <P>Harriet Klausner

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